The Age of the Human Race

Article by Rob VandeWeghe

Through the last decades science has struggled to estimate the age of the human race. Obviously, evolution would insist this occurred a long time ago, as it would take an incredible span of time for the first human-like creature (the cave man or monkey man) to develop into the sophisticated humans of today.

First, it must be observed that current estimates for the age of mankind are still all over the board. The lack of reliable dating methods for organic material is a serious challenge for all paleo-anthropologists. This might surprise you, but the only reliable dating method for organic material is Carbon-14 dating. This procedure can date organic material such as bones and teeth accurately but only to a maximum of 25,000-30,000 years. Dating older organic material is nothing more than guesswork. In many cases these guesses rely on “leap of faith” assumptions by dating the rocks found near the organic material in question, wildly asserting these rocks were formed at the same time as the bones/skull/teeth were deposited. Obviously that is not science, but only wishful thinking.

Recently the advance of genetics has opened a new pathway to estimate the age of mankind through the analysis of human organic material. By comparing samples of currently living humans with well dated DNA samples from the past, an estimate can be made for the rate the human DNA record changes. Applying this estimated natural mutation rate to a representative sampling of the DNA of today’s world population, allows to estimate how much time would be required for today’s human DNA to mutate (“deteriorate”) from a common ancestor. As every cell in the human body contains the combined DNA from both the father and the mother, analyzing this DNA would not allow to trace the separate ancestry of the male or female. But, two parts of human genetic material do not recombine in reproduction, namely:

1) Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) This DNA

Filed: Humanities
tags: anthropologists, carbon 14, cave man, common ancestor, dating methods, dna samples, guesswork, Human, human body, human dna, human genetic material, leap of faith, mankind, mitochondrial dna, monkey man, mutation rate, natural mutation, organic material, paleo, Race, representative sampling, world population